Lens Rental Company Shows Gear Ravaged by the Eclipse

Not everyone listens. For weeks the world was warned about the dangers of viewing the first solar eclipse on the continental U.S. since 1979. Countless articles and tutorials were posted (many even on this site) explaining everything you needed to do to protect both the human eye and your camera gear and yet, there were still a few who didn't believe.

LensRental.com recently shared some of the equipment they rented out that came back damaged by the eclipse, and it turns out, most people listen. They were expecting to get back some ruined gear, however, they were expecting more damage than they actually got.

When people without the proper solar filter think they can go around the safety issue by putting the camera in live mode, which opens the mirror and sends the image to the back monitor on the camera instead of going through the view piece, this is what happened to their sensors.

(Photo by lensrentals.com)

Then there are the scary people who didn't use live mode and hopefully, were wearing eclipse glasses on their eyes or were just pointing and clicking blinding and checked the image on the screen after it was taken, because otherwise, they were looking directly at the amplified light through the eyepiece. In those scenarios, the camera's mirror is what takes a beating. The site says that this type of damage is far rarer as most people know how dangerous it is to look through the eyepiece, however, they did get one back with a badly damaged mirror box from the sun.

(Photos by lensrental.com)

The images that really freak me out, though, are the images of Iris damage, they show the real power of the sun. This is INSIDE the lens. It's made of metal! Imagine what this kind of power would do to your eye?

(Photo by lensrental.com Canon 600mm f/4L IS II USM)

(photo by lensrental.com Canon 600mm f/4L IS II USM)

Again the company said they were really surprised at how few cameras came back damaged from the sun. Maybe humans have a shot after all, as we only need most of us to listen to not ruin the party for everyone.